The Courage of Marge O'Doone eBook

James Oliver Curwood
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 329 pages of information about The Courage of Marge O'Doone.

The Courage of Marge O'Doone eBook

James Oliver Curwood
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 329 pages of information about The Courage of Marge O'Doone.

“What did she mean when she called you that—­Sakewawin?  What did she mean?”

It was not now the voice of a drunken man, but the voice of a man ready to kill.

CHAPTER XXI

Sakewawin! What did she mean when she called you that?”

It was Brokaw’s voice again, turning the words round but repeating them.  He made a step toward David, his hands clenched more tightly and his whole hulk growing tense.  His eyes, blazing as if through a very thin film of water—­water that seemed to cling there by some strange magic—­were horrible, David thought. Sakewawin! A pretty name for himself, he had told the girl—­and here it was raising the very devil with this drink-bloated colossus.  He guessed quickly.  It was decidedly a matter of guessing quickly and of making prompt and satisfactory explanation—­or, a throttling where he stood.  His mind worked like a race-horse.  “Sakewawin” meant something that had enraged Brokaw.  A jealous rage.  A rage that had filled his aqueous eyes with a lurid glare.  So David said, looking into them calmly, and with a little feigned surprise: 

“Wasn’t she speaking to you, Brokaw?”

It was a splendid shot.  David scarcely knew why he made it, except that he was moved by a powerful impulse which just now he had not time to analyze.  It was this same impulse that had kept him from revealing himself when Brokaw had mistaken him for someone else.  Chance had thrown a course of action into his way and he had accepted it almost involuntarily.  It had suddenly occurred to him that he would give much to be alone with this half-drunken man for a few hours—­as McKenna.  He might last long enough in that disguise to discover things.  But not with Hauck watching him, for Hauck was four fifths sober, and there was a depth to his cruel eyes which he did not like.  He watched the effect of his words on Brokaw.  The tenseness left his body, his hands unclenched slowly, his heavy jaw relaxed—­and David laughed softly.  He felt that he was out of deep water now.  This fellow, half filled with drink, was wonderfully credulous.  And he was sure that his watery eyes could not see very well, though his ears had heard distinctly.

“She was looking at you, Brokaw—­straight at you—­when she said good-night,” he added.

“You sure—­sure she said it to me, Mac?”

David nodded, even as his blood ran a little cold.

A leering grin of joy spread over Brokaw’s face.

“The—­the little devil!” he said, gloatingly.

“What does it mean?” David asked. “Sakewawin—­I had never heard it.”  He lied calmly, turning his head a bit out of the light.

Brokaw stared at him a moment before answering.

“When a girl says that—­it means—­she belongs to you,” he said.  “In Indian it means—­possession!  Dam’ ... of course you’re right!  She said it to me.  She’s mine.  She belongs to me.  I own her.  And I thought....”

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The Courage of Marge O'Doone from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.